The Edge Of Glory
by swagUPwindowsDOWN
Summary: I'm on the edge of glory, and I'm hanging on a moment with you. A game of see saw that none of the boys want to play, and none can afford to lose. For the BTR Plot Adoption Forum's friendship challenge.


**Hi Guys, long time no see, I know, and I'm so sorry for that. But, I've been motivated to write again and have taken part in the BTR Plot Adoption Forum's friendship story challenge. You have to write about the friendship between all the boys, which is different to what most of us usually write. This is my entry, and it's a two part story. This is the first part and when I have the second part finished, I'll add it on to the end to create one long one shot.**

 **I really hope you like this. When it's finished, it will be the longest one shot I have ever written, and I am kind of proud of it.**

 **Enjoy :)**

* * *

The lights were too bright. There were too many. Every fourth ceiling tile was imprinted with a rectangular light, it's intensity glaring and cold. There were lights on the walls, tiny circular lights along the sideboards at the very bottom of the walls, and it made James' eyes hurt. They were all moving along at the rate he was too, or should that have been they weren't really moving, just he was? The motion made all those fourth tile lights blur together until they were just one giant, fluorescent mass that never seemed to go away.

People were walking alongside him, one at his head, two on his right and one on his left. There were people at reception desks and people in the side rooms. People crossed over in front of him, and then disappeared into corridors and up flights of stairs, or crossed over behind him and went out the entrance. So many faces and so many bodies, it was crowded and claustrophobic and James wanted them to all go away. He shut his eyes just so that he wouldn't see so many eyes staring down at him.

"No, no, honey. You need to keep your eyes open so we know you're with us. That's it."

The voice was foreign to him, and held the lilt of a southern accent that could have been from Tennessee or Kansas. Somewhere in James' mind he chuckled, because that might have been what Logan would have sounded like had he not moved to Minnesota, but that was only deep deep down and he didn't register the thought as the voice's words made it through his ears and he opened his eyes again.

The voice was one of a multitude of sounds. Mainly people speaking, some urgent and rushed in panic, haste or worry. Some were desperate, screeching and wailing, though James didn't want to imagine what for. Then there were the hurried voices of the doctors around him, discussing blood pressure and heart rate and whether or not they needed plastics to come down and assess the wound as well. All these voices, young, old, American and internationals, surrounded the unnatural, mechanical drones of hundreds of monitors. ECG machines beeped, all at a different rate than each other. Some were extremely fast and others a low, flat tone that quickly faded away. The elevators dinged periodically as they brought people up and down floors, carrying patients, doctors and equipment to different wards. Warning bleeps merged with call button bloops. James wanted it to stop, he wanted it all to stop.

He didn't want to be here, with the lights and the people and the sounds. He didn't want to be scared or hurting. He wanted to be home in 2J, playing video games with his friends. James' knuckles turned white as his hands gripped the bars of the gurney...his friends!

"James you need to stop moving so that your leg stays still. You don't want to displace the bone more than it is."

His leg? Why had he forgotten about his leg? The wound throbbed and stung like a wasp's nest had buried itself inside. His body was twitching from the overload, even though the paramedics had given up a light dose of morphine on the ride over. It was meant to make the journey more comfortable, but James couldn't even tell the difference after it was administered.

"I-I...my friends, please...you-you n-need to help..." he whimpered as the pain reached up his thigh and into hip, his forehead breaking out in a cold sweat.

"They'll be coming in soon, sweetie." Then her head quickly turned to look behind her and she spoke to someone he couldn't see. "What's that?" The person uttered a few syllables and the nurse - he guessed she was a nurse given her blue scrubs - focused on him again and added "in fact, my colleague has just said one of them arrived before you. Blonde hair?"

"K-Kendall," he breathed out, his eyes going wide, "is h-he ok? W-what about-"

"Ok, honey, don't worry about that for now. They're all in good hands and I'll let you know as soon as I do. For now, let's focus on you, ok?

James didn't want to focus on himself. He didn't want to think about how long he would be in a cast for, whether he'd need surgery or not. He just wanted to know how his friends were, he needed them to be ok. But as he was wheeled into the ER, no one would tell him anything.

* * *

"That was awesome, I am so pumped!" Carlos yelled as he slammed the door open to their dressing room. The other boys followed him in, all covered in sweat but cheeks flushed with excitement.

"Carlos!" Logan reprimanded as he caught the door before it hit the wall on the other side, "we don't want to be charged with any damage right after coming off stage."

Carlos drew his face into a pout and Logan rolled his eyes. The Latino jumped up to the smaller brunette and shook him by the shoulders. "Do you realise that we just played our first show of our very first headlining tour? Do you? Do you?" Logan chuckled as James came over and plopped two towels over each of their heads.

"We can celebrate when we're not all stinky," he commented, but then his head tilted and he thought over what he had said, "actually, what am I saying? We rocked it tonight. I'm living out my wildest fantasy right now! I need a selfie to commemorate this moment."

They all watched as he took out his lucky comb, smoothed his damp hair over and posed into his phone's front camera. His expression changed several times, until he straightened up again and pocketed it again.

"Those can go in my headshot collection," he brought his hands up in front of him, envisioning "James Diamond is...the rockstar."

"Dude, I think that's pretty clear already," Kendall chuckled as he walked away from the other three. "I call dibs on the first shower!" He called, and he entered the adjoining bathroom in their dressing room, locking the door behind him.

Logan and Carlos looked at each other, then at James, and then at each other again.

"Dibs on the second!" They both shouted simultaneously.

"Carlos it's my turn to go second, you know that," Logan complained.

"Rock, paper, scissors me for it then," the Latino challenged. Logan raised an eyebrow but sighed and held out his fist anyway.

The game wasn't that hard for Logan. Carlos had a notorious habit of repeating the same moves over and over - scissors, rock, paper - and so put himself at a disadvantage. Needless to say, Logan easily won the first and second round in quick succession.

After a best of three, because Carlos would go on forever if they didn't cap it at three, Logan was the official winner. Carlos whined a little at his friend being a genius, because he was positive it gave him an unfair advantage. Geniuses could read minds or something, that's what it had to be.

"Hey, why can I never go first, second or even third?" James asked after he finished his preening.

"James, get your shower time to be less than half an hour and then we can talk." Kendall answered as he came out of the bathroom in a towel, all fresh and clean. Logan darted in quickly, just as Carlos started laughing at the disgruntled look on James' face.

* * *

"I can't wait to get to the tour bus and crash," Kendall commented as he leant his head back on the limo car seat headrest. "'My feet are killing me."

"I know what you mean. I shouldn't have done that fourth backflip," Logan replied. The brunette was leant forward, right hand massaging his back.

"But the audience were asking for it, you couldn't leave them hanging!" Carlos chirped from his seat next to him. The Latino was a little jittery and very loud due to the adrenaline rush of performing slowly wearing out.

"No, and now _I'm_ hanging."

"Guys, can I just say something," James sat up straight and looked each of them in the eye. His hands twined themselves round each other as he spoke. "I just...I want to thank you. This was my dream, not yours, but you put everything on hold to come out here and see what would happen. I don't think I really processed it then, but you really are the best friends a guy could have. And now, after we've just performed our first show on our headlining tour..." he paused for a moment, a finger coming to wipe at his eyes as he inhaled shakily, "I'm so grateful. Thank you, because now my dream has finally come true."

Kendall, being on the same side as James, shuffled over and put his arm around the taller boy. "I think I speak for everyone here when I say we would do it all again in a heartbeat. We'd do anything for you, and actually I'm really glad I convinced Gustavo to go for it as well. I never knew I liked doing this band thing, but now I want to continue and see where it takes us."

Carlos nodded along, his hyperness, for once, settled as he realised the weight of James' words. "You'd do the same for any of us," he gestured around the space, "I mean, if one of us had the opportunity to become a doctor," he pointed to Logan, "a hockey player," then to Kendall, "or a superhero police officer who also taste tests corn dogs on the side." He didn't need to gesture to himself for the others to know who he was talking about there, and they all laughed.

"I think the point that Carlos is trying to make," Logan took over from the Latino before he got carried away, "is that we want to see you succeed in life, and this was a way to make that happen. And, to be honest, I really like it as well. I like singing, and performing for our fans. Maybe the dancing needs a little work...but I'm happy I get to go through this crazy ride with you three by my side."

There was a moment of quiet calm, Carlos wrapping his arm around Logan to mirror the two on the opposite side.

Suddenly, there was a shout and all of their attentions were drawn to their driver up front. There was a sliding screen that separated them from the driver's section, and whilst it was made to block sound between the two, it wasn't t sound proof and that cry could have been heard from outside the vehicle.

The boys looked at each other spooked and try to deduce what had happened. Logan, being the closest to the divider, shuffled up and pulled it across. At first sight, nothing seemed abnormal. The windows in the back were tinted so they couldn't really see out, but at the front the driver had a clear all-around vantage. Nothing was blocking the windshield and it wasn't raining or thundering, which may have obstructed his view. The only thing was that they were on a quieter road, with slopes woodland surrounding them on either side, though Ray, their driver whom they had used on many occasions, was an expert and couldn't have been fazed.

When Logan looked at the middle-aged man, he immediately knew something was wrong. Ray was clutching his chest with one hand, whilst he clung to the steering wheel with a white-knuckled grip using the other. Beads of sweat were slowly dripping down his forehead onto his shirt collar.

"Ray, what's wrong?" Logan asked, already leaning foreword through the gap in the screen and checking the man's pulse. He was lucky he was small in situations like these.

Ray's pulse was going far too fast for his liking and he looked as if he were in increasing pain. Just as he was about to squeeze through the gap fully and try and help, Ray's eyes rolled and his body slumped. The sudden force of his body collapsing sent his hands slipping from the wheel and pulling it sideways. The limo changed its course and headed for the trees on the right side of the road.

"Oh...oh crap!"

The other boys startled when Logan shouted. The brunette never swore unless something was very very wrong. Carlos tried to reach and tap Logan to see what was wrong, but the car abruptly swerved at an alarming rate, causing them all to topple over onto their sides. Limos didn't require seat belts, something which now seemed incredibly stupid.

Logan could only watch as they drove off the road. He was too far away to reach the wheel, even though he still tried. He slipped his body through more in a desperate attempt at being able to avoid veering off into the woodland, but it was too late.

The limousine slanted with the downwards gradient as it off-roaded, the wheels picking up speed as it careened down the steep hill. The boys screamed as they gripped the seats, the arm rests, anything to keep them from falling down the limo, where Logan was gripping the divider with all his strength so he too didn't fall forward.

Kendall, James and Carlos couldn't see what was happening, all they knew was that they were definitely not on the road anymore. Branches of trees and bushes scraped against the windows, screeching as the vehicle yanked them from their trunks. Rocks flung up and around, denting the roof and eventually shattering the back windshield.

Kendall glanced back through the broken glass and blanched. You couldn't even see the road behind them by now, the grey tarmac long gone.

He looked around at his three friends, holding on tighter and shouting "brace yourselves!"

No sooner than he had said that, the limo collided with a huge boulder. But, because of the incredible amount of speed they had picked up going downhill, the vehicle simple flipped over it and began tumbling down on its side instead.

Everyone was screaming, yelling, spinning around, not knowing which was was up or down, whether they were on the ceiling or on the floor. Up and down, round and round, four boys screamed for their lives.

When the terrain finally evened out and the limo rolled to a stop, all was quiet. No sound could be heard both inside or outside the vehicle apart from the occasional creak of battered metal, as it balanced eerily over the edge of a deep, deep canyon.

* * *

"Please, please stop! That hurts!" James cried as the doctor examined his leg. He took a long puff on the gas and air that he had been given, but it wasn't doing anything for him.

He felt a hand on his foot, which was tingling with pins and needles. It felt weird and oddly detached from the rest of his leg, which was burning with a fiery agony that never seemed to stop. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the the nurse who's hand was on the door shake her head.

"James," his doctor addressed him, his last name started with a G but he couldn't remember exactly what it was. Everything that wasn't important was lost in a haze of pain. "Your bone has broken in several places along your lower leg, and parts of it are at the wrong angle. This means that not enough blood is going to your foot, do you understand?"

James nodded. His leg messed up and not allowing blood down to his foot, much like a bouncer on the door of a nightclub, or one of their concerts. The one that night had been called Brady, and he had a weird little quiff for bangs that made James constantly want to restyle his hair because it made him look like he had a large bump growing out of his head. James thought he could have been trying to hide the fact that he was secretly a unicorn or something, and he chuckled as he imagined it again. Maybe the pain was going to his head, or perhaps it was the gas and air.

"Ok, so I'm going to have to realign the bones before we take you into surgery so that the blood flow can be restored, and so that the bones will heal in the right places with pins in. We're going to give you something to help the pain, but it might still hurt a bit."

James automatically shook his head. More pain was a big no no. He didn't want his leg to hurt even more, he couldn't bare it already. This was when he needed his friends, they would have been there for him, holding his hand and taking some of the discomfort out of the situation.

"James, we need to do this. Your foot isn't getting enough blood supply and if we don't fix it then you could lose it," the doctor was firm but gentle, his tone held an urgency that was hard to disagree with.

The chestnut-haired boy whimpered futilely but relaxed his body against the bed, knowing that the procedure had to be done in order for him to be able to sing and dance after all of this. Even just to walk away on his own when he was discharged. That was presuming everything turned out alright. He didn't want to think about his friends' fate right now.

"Ok, that's a good lad." Doctor Gardner - he could see the man's name tag now and his last name did start with a G - appraised, patting his shoulder.

"Do we have consent from his guardian?" Doctor Gardner asked the nurse next to him. She gave the affirmative and he signed off the paperwork. "5mg oxycodone in a nebuliser then please."

* * *

Four teens haphazardly lay across the limo, limbs and bodies strewn in positions that were far from natural. All were completely unaware of anything around them. And then, out of the quiet, coughing erupted from somewhere in the limo.

He woke up to darkness. His vision blotted with a black covering, as if his eyes were behind a blindfold. As he became more aware of his surroundings, his fingertips brushed against a fuzzy material, and he realised that he only saw black because he was lying face down on the floor. It took a moment, but he was up in a flash, pushing himself up from the carpet of the limousine floor and assessing the scene around him.

Immediately a hand came to wrap around his midsection as a sharp burst of pain resonated around. He bent forward, as if trying to hold himself together, as if his broken innards would spill out without his hold. His ribs had to be messed up. He knew, from many years of hockey, what a broken rib felt like, and by the feel of it, he certainly had several. He grunted through the pain and tried to piece together what had happened.

They had crashed and he had ended up on the floor, that much was clear. How they had crashed, what caused it, was another matter entirely, but there wasn't time to think about that now. He looked around him for the other occupants and his stomach dropped.

"G-guys?" he whispered into the stillness. There was no reply other than the birds scattering away outside as the limo gave an obnoxious creak.

"Guys!" Kendall yelled, swivelling his head back and forth between his three fallen band mates.

Carlos was the closest. The Latino was perched on the edge of his seat, his legs hanging off the end. His head was turned towards Kendall, but his helmet had fallen foreword so he couldn't see the boy's eyes. One of his arms was flung up above him, as if he had used it to brace himself for the impact, whilst his other couldn't be seen as it was tucked underneath his body.

"Carlos! Carlos, come on, you need to wake up and h-help me..." Kendall clutched his ribs as he twisted closer to his friend. This was not the time to be debilitated by an injury he often acquired from a check into the sideboards during a rough hockey game.

The blonde reached out and placed his hand on Carlos' shoulder, the one that belonged to the arm flung up above him. He shook him softly, at first, but when they did nothing, his hand roughly pushed backwards and forwards.

"Please, Carlos, come on."

Out of the four of them, Carlos was the most injury prone, mostly due to the incredibly ridiculous stunts he tried to pull. He had his helmet, but the boy couldn't protect himself from multiple broken bones throughout his 16 years of life. He always said it came with the territory of a daredevil stuntman, and even had a chart detailing each injury and how it had happened. But, to see him completely quiet and out cold wasn't a regular occurrence, and Kendall didn't feel like this was something that he would easily be able to bounce back from.

Breathing faster now, Kendall turned around to track down James. The chestnut- haired boy was towards the trunk end of the vehicle, and Kendall crawled over to him as fast as he could. He grunted as his ribs pulled with each drag of his arms, beads of sweat gathering on his forehead.

James lay face up. Kendall could clearly see the small cuts littering his face from the glass that had shattered, and he imagined that he, too, had many adorning his body. The taller boy was still, though it didn't seem as if there was much else wrong with him. Kendall quickly scanned the rest of his body. He gasped as he realised that, whilst he could see James' right leg down to the shoe, his left leg could only be seen down to the shin, instead going underneath the seat. He bent down as far as he could and saw that, luckily, the rest of the leg hadn't been ripped off. That was a good thing. The bad news, however, was that the brunette's foot had pounded through the board underneath the seat, and now his leg was sat in the outer body of the car. Kendall winced, not knowing whether his friend's leg was ok or not as he couldn't see it.

"James, buddy, can you wake up for me? Come on, now," Kendall turned around as fast as he could, still being mindful that the pain in his ribs hadn't lessened any. Upon looking at James' face, though, he could tell his friend hadn't heard him. He patted James' face with his hands, but still he couldn't wake him. His chest was still rising and falling though.

"James, please, w-wake up!"

Kendall was practically shouting now, seemingly all alone in the back of a wrecked car, but he didn't care. If it made his friends wake up then he'd scream his throat raw.

"Kendall? What-what's wrong with James?"

Kendall leapt a foot into the air at the voice, quickly scrambling over to Carlos who looked up at him with a sudden look of fear.

"Are-are we dead? Did we die?!" Carlos panicked as his gaze flew round the damaged vehicle, and he tried to push up from his position with the arm underneath him. As quick as he was up he was down, mouth open in a cry of pain that didn't come out. He buried his face into the seat and cried out. Kendall flapped his arms around trying to help his friend, but not quite being sure what was wrong, he couldn't do much for him.

But, as soon as Carlos sat up, it was clear what was wrong. His entire arm, shoulder to fingertips, hung limp beside him. His shoulder sat back in its socket more than it should, whilst the rest of his arm dangled next to his body. Carlos looked at it wide eyed.

"I think your shoulder's dislocated," Kendall stated matter-of-factly. He watched as Carlos poked the limb and winced, then stopped him before he went in again. "Does it hurt?"

"Not too much, it throbs most of the time unless I press it," he replied, not really able to take his eyes away from it for too long, "is it meant to hang like that?"

"Uh…I-I don't know…Logan's the one who knows this stuff."

"Wh-where is Logie?" Carlos looked around, unable to spot their genius friend. He did see James lying face up on the floor, but he couldn't see whether he was ok or not.

"The last time I saw him he was trying to help up front…I haven't checked yet. I couldn't get you or James awake and then you actually _were_ awake…"

Carlos glanced towards the front of the vehicle with wide eyes. Kendall knew he couldn't see anything beyond the divider, but the younger looked terrified even so, and the blonde knew he couldn't let Carlos check what the scene was like up front. He was the unofficial leader, and his friends needed him.

"Carlos…keep trying James, ok?"

"What are you going to do?"

Kendall's took a breath and gingerly clutched his ribs, before moving away from Carlos. He paused as a particularly harsh tweak of pain reminded him that he shouldn't be moving at all, but he continued on anyway.

"I'm going to see if Logie's ok. Try and wake James up, we need to see if his leg is injured." Carlos nodded fearfully and shuffled onto the floor way the brunette was. His arm flopped around beside him, but if it hurt he didn't show it.

"James, James? It's Carlos, you need to wake up...there's a massive Cuda sale at the mall…"

Kendall made his way down the limo, but what he didn't expect was the vehicle to suddenly lean forward when he got to the divider. The limo groaned as it slanted and rocked. Kendall stood stock still, afraid to move another inch. Carlos' head shot to where Kendall was as the limo teetered around.

"K-Kendall?" Carlos whispered, his breath leaving him and causing his chest to hurt.

Kendall gulped, shifting his weight so that the limo started to tilt backwards again.

"I-I think this is a little worse than we thought," Kendall commented. Carlos swore he had never heard him so calm before. He, himself, was terrified. But he knew that Kendall was the level-headed one in bad situations.

Kendall peered as much as he could through the divider. He could see that their driver was slumped in his seat, unmoving. He didn't want to admit what that might have meant. His gaze moved across the front space, until he saw Logan. Their pale friend looked even whiter if possible, body turned around so that he was laying with his back to the dashboard. Above his head, on the glass window screen, was a large spiral crack that blossomed out from where something had hit it. Blood dripped from the cracks in the glass, landing on the dashboard in slow drips. There wasn't any sign of what had hit what, but it was obvious Logan had come into contact with the screen. Kendall couldn't tell if Logan's chest was moving at all, and that scared him.

The car creaked again and leaned with Kendall as he tried to get to Logan. He could now see what was in front of them, or rather, what wasn't. The huge fall into the canyon below got him scrambling back as fast as he could, the limo following suit and resting back on its haunches again. Carlos looked at him alarmed as Kendall shook his head.

"Carlos…we have to be very, very still, ok? We can't go too far forward."

The Latino shuffled backwards slightly, fear shining through his irises. "Kendall…why does it feel like we're balancing on a teeter totter?" Carlos' voice was like a mouse's, small and timid. He clutched his injured arm with his uninjured one, not caring whether he hurt himself or not.

Kendall's hands shook as he shrunk closer to the Latino. For the first time in his life, Kendall didn't know what to do.

"That's-that's b-because we are, Carlos," his voice came out in a whisper, though he couldn't have made it louder if he tried. "This limo is balancing on the edge of a canyon…our lives are now d-depending on us keeping all of our weight back here, otherwise…"

Carlos didn't need to answer for Kendall to know how he felt. He rapidly paled, skin taking on a colour more like James' than his own, shaking his head as if he hadn't heard the words correctly. Then, he made a strange, garbled sound, before promptly turning around and throwing up on the seat behind him.

* * *

 **And there is part one! Did you like it? Please leave me a review and tell me your thoughts, it's really helpful to get some feedback. I hope I did this justice because I really liked the idea and had fun exploring where it could go. The next part should, hopefully, be added shortly.**

 **Thank you,**

 **~swagUPwindowsDOWN :) x**


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